


false alarm

by demigodbeautiies



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, Neighbour AU, Nico di Angelo is a gay disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25248178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demigodbeautiies/pseuds/demigodbeautiies
Summary: It was well past 3 am on his first day off in god knows how long, and the fire alarm was still ringing, because of course something was going to ruin it for him, because the universe just couldn’t get enough of fucking up the life and sleeping pattern of Nico di Angelo.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 8
Kudos: 173





	false alarm

The fire alarm ringing throughout his apartment building  _ still _ had not been turned off. 

Nothing else but that cacophony of noise and the frustration of having been pulled out of bed ran through his head, because  _ fuck, _ it was well past 3 in the morning. 

It was well past 3 am on his first day off in god knows how long, and  _ of course  _ something was going to ruin it for him, because the universe just couldn’t get enough of fucking up the life and sleeping pattern of Nico di Angelo. 

_ What the fuck did I expect. _

He had just crawled into bed, finally deciding he was tired enough to actually get some sleep and enjoy a long rest on his day off, before the shrill ringing just had to go and crush all his hopes and dreams.

“Do you know what happened?”

“I think it was a false alarm.”

“Or those two boys on the second floor tried to do some late night baking again-”

Nico shuffled from foot to foot with a low sigh at the back of his throat, tuning out the questions and speculations from the nosy women that lived on the floor below his. 

He was  _ fucking  _ exhausted.

Around him children were sleeping in their parent’s arms, still clutching stuffed toys they had been sure to grab on the way out. The lesbian couple from down the hall sat leaning against each other, one quietly reading while the other dozed. The small old man from the ground floor sat with his dog asleep next to him. 

“William Solace, you are going to catch a cold!”

Nico looked up, drawn out of his vacant, tired staring by the sudden shouting. 

One of the small grandmas from the first floor stood with her hands on her hips, staring at - 

_ Oh. _

A man laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his curly blonde head, but it wasn’t his smile that captured Nico’s attention.

He was almost completely naked. 

“Ah, I’m sorry Mrs. Johnson, I-”

He stood hunched forward, shirtless, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and flip flops. 

“No buts! How on earth does your mother let you live alone, hm?” Mrs. Johnson continued, actually going so far as to reach up and grab his ear. 

“Ah, ah! I- I was pretty sleepy when I left, I-”

The conversation filtered out of Nico’s brain.  _ Eavesdropping is rude,  _ he thought,  _ and so is staring.  _

He didn’t stop staring. 

How had he never seen this guy before? With hair that bright and a body like a fucking swimsuit model? How the fuck had he never noticed him?

He looked up and jolted. 

The man had moved, seemingly to get away from little Mrs. Johnson. Except now, he was standing three foot away from Nico. 

In the middle of their parking lot without a shirt on.

At 3:21 am.

Because the fire alarm went off and it never crossed his minds to find a shirt. __

_ At 3:21 am.  _

Was the world just trying to taunt Nico, at this point? He was too fucking tired to unpack any of this. 

“Mrs. Johnson sure told you,” he muttered, mostly to himself, but - 

“She’s never going to let me hear the end of this,” the man said with a long groan, slumping to the ground next to Nico. 

He laughed, crouching down on the ground next to him. Good. If they were both on the ground, he couldn’t get distracted by how tall he was. 

“William, right?” Nico asked. He rolled his eyes. 

“Only William if you’re going to chew me out for being shirtless,” he grumbled. “Please call me Will.”

“Okay, Will, let me ask you this: aren’t you  _ fucking  _ freezing?”

“Oh, for sure,” he said with a laugh, hunching his shoulders forward. “But my apartment is sweltering, and I was only barely awake enough to remember to put shorts on.”

Nico flushed. Ah. He could skip over that thought, no matter how nice - 

“Shut the fuck up, di Angelo-”

“Huh?”

_ Fuck.  _ He’d said that outloud. God he was tired.

“Nothing,” Nico said. “Not a 3 am kind of person?” he said instead, itching to change the subject to something less horrifyingly gay.

“Nope,” Will said with a shrug. “Rise with the sun, and all that.”

Nico nodded; he couldn’t relate to the idea of being up before 9am unless  _ absolutely  _ necessary, but agreeing seemed like the least energy-consuming option here. He was still nothing short of groggy and exhausted. 

Will said something. 

“What?” Nico asked, looking up at Will and blinking a few times.

“I said it’s fucking June, it has no right to be this cold out,” Will repeated, scratching absentmindedly at his  _ bare  _ shoulder. “You okay, dude? You look tired.”

“No, actually, I’m the picture of alertness,” he said, with a dry, sardonic laugh. “ _ Yeah,  _ I’m fucking tired. I’ve had the week from hell and now my first day off in weeks is ruined being out here at 3 am.”

He pointedly did  _ not  _ look at Will. He had the feeling he’d look like a golden retriever that had just been kicked by a cruel old man.

He looked anyway. 

“I think the diner down the street is 24 hours,” was all Will said, looking at Nico with big, round, blue eyes. 

“What?” Was all Nico replied.

Will shrugged, turning to look out the parking lot. The fire brigade had only just arrived. The piercing alarm was still going. 

“It’ll be a while,” he said. “We can go get some ice cream or something. My treat.” 

Nico had to take a moment to absorb what he said, before blinking down at Will, and because the universe was  _ not  _ on his side - 

“Do you even have any money? You’re naked.”

Will let out a laugh, a bright bubbly sound. 

“Yeah, I am. But I’ve got my phone, I can make it work,” he said. 

Nico flushed -  _ god you fool, you could have said something a bit less  _ gay _ , my god- _

“Okay,” he said instead, swallowing. 

Will smiled. 

“Great,” he said, pushing himself up and offering Nico a hand.  _ His hand is so big, wow- _

He grumbled, ignoring the voice in his head that was rising unbidden. It was almost like, the longer he stood outside, the more unprompted and unhelpfully gay thoughts came to mind.

He was barely awake enough to filter anything, and it fucking showed. 

“Wait,” Nico said, stopping before he could follow Will out of the parking lot. “Will they let you in without a shirt?”

Because fuck, he had a chance to go for late night ice cream with his tall, muscular,  _ beautiful, naked  _ neighbour, but couldn’t stop poking holes in this brief glimmer of good fortune,  _ you dumbass-  _

“Hm,” was all Will said, looking down at his own naked chest. “That’s a good question.”

Nico bit his cheek. 

And then, shuffled out of his hoodie, passing it wordlessly to Will while distinctly looking at the ground. 

“What are you doing?” Will asked. The amusement in his voice was so, incredibly,  _ infuriatingly  _ obvious. 

“You can’t buy me ice cream if they don’t let you in,” Nico muttered. “Now put it on.”

Will laughed, but gently took the offered sweater from him. Fabric rustled as he slid it on. 

“This fits surprisingly well,” he muttered, looking down at the sweater. “Uh, are you part of the football team?”

“What?” Nico asked, looking back at Will. If he was honest, he hadn’t even noticed which hoodie he had grabbed, too dreary and grumpy when the fire alarm first started ringing to notice. 

When he looked closer, he put together the lettering on the breast and the colouring of the hoodie.

“Oh,” he said, still processing what he saw outloud. “That’s Jason’s.”

Will raised an eyebrow. “Boyfriend?” 

“God, no,” Nico scoffed, shaking his head. “He’s horrifyingly straight.” 

“I see you now have some sensible clothes, William!” a voice called out. Will turned and smiled at Mrs. Johnson, but Nico could hear him sigh. 

He fought down a laugh; somehow, he didn’t think Mrs. Johnson would take well to that. 

“Yep, all thanks to Nico here! We’re off for a bit, stay-”

“You better treat that boy right, young man!” she called back, cutting him off mid sentence. 

Nico could almost see a flush rise on Will’s cheeks, before turning away from the two of them to snicker into his shoulder.

“God, that woman,” Will muttered, turning to set off down the road, and Nico laughed harder. 

“She’s nice most of the time,” Nico said, and Will rolled his eyes. 

“Maybe to you,” he said with a huff. “She mothers me worse than my own mother.”

Nico smiled, amused at Will’s expense all the way to the diner down the road. It was, in fact, still open.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t too busy at 3 am. There were three extremely bored looking waiters, and a few customers that either looked dead to the world or insanely frazzled. 

“This is nice,” Will said as they sat down, sounding chipper. Nico snorted. 

“Yeah,  _ you  _ would think so.”

“Alright, shorty, whatever you want is on me,” he said, flipping to the back of the menu he had been handed to pour through the desserts. 

He leant forward, and Nico noticed with startling clarity that he had hardly zipped up the hoodie he had given him. His chest was just, there, and all he could really think about for the moments was - 

“Those abs - ” 

“What?” Will asked, incredulously. 

“What?” Nico said. He refused to blush, he  _ refused- _

“Did you just say something about my abs?” 

“No, I said you were a dick,” Nico muttered, and Will laughed. 

“Oh my god, you totally did. You’re blushing and everything!”

“Fuck off, no I’m not-”

“You so are,” Will said, smiling wider. “What did you say about my abs?”

“That they suck,” Nico muttered, glaring at Will. 

Most people, when he glared at them - on the bus, in his classes, at the grocery store - jumped and turned away, as if that would spare them the terrifying wrath of this weird goth kid. 

Will was not, apparently, like most people. 

“I think you like my abs,” he teased, leaning back and letting the hoodie - which he unzipped further, the bastard - slip to the side. 

“We are in public,” Nico said, turning his head to look out across the room they sat in.  _ Not  _ because he wanted to avoid getting caught staring. 

“And you like my abs.”

“Shush.”

“Not until you admit it-”

“Fine, they’re very nice abs, you  _ dick.” _

Will grinned like a cat that had got the cream, leaning forward to rest his chin on his palm. 

“Thanks,” he said.  _ Smug fucker.  _ “I’m sure that your abs are also just as nice.”

“I don’t have any fucking abs,” Nico muttered. 

“Scientifically impossible,” Will commented. “You’ll always have abdominal muscles unless something real weird is happening with your genes.” 

Nico rolled his eyes. 

“Okay,  _ fine.  _ Just say you’re desperate to see me shirtless.”

“Nico,” Will gasped, “in public?”

“You’re insufferable,” Nico huffed, shuffling towards the edge of his seat. “I’m gonna fucking leave.” 

“No, no,” Will said, laughing and reaching for Nico’s arm. “I’m sorry. Sorry. What do you want to eat?”

“I was promised ice cream,” Nico said, resettling into his seat.

“Then we’ll get you ice cream.”

-

As much as he would have loved to, Nico couldn’t complain about Will’s company. He was a bit of a snarky dick, but then again, so was Nico. 

He also seemed really fucking nice. 

He told Nico about how he had been running errands for Mrs. Johnson in the past few months, walking his neighbours dogs, picking flowers to give to the building’s little kids when he saw them. 

Ordinarily Nico wouldn’t have thought twice about talking to someone who went out of their way to be nice, but - 

Well, Will was still a bit of a snarky dick. And he bought him ice cream. 

“Oh shit,” Will said, voice soft. Nico turned to where Will had cast his gaze off to the side, to see - 

The sun had risen. 

He pulled out his phone, checking the time. 5:57 am. 

“Jeez,” Will murmured, stretching his arms up above his head. “Time flies, huh?”

“Yeah,” Nico muttered. “I- we should probably head.”

Will hummed in agreement. “The building’s probably clear by now. Well, hopefully.” 

Nico chuckled, pushing himself up to stand. “God, it fucking better be.” 

He followed Will leisurely as he went up to pay, and then when wandered out into the parking lot. The dawn light cast a soft glow on the sleepy street.

Will yawned. 

“What happened to rising with the sun,  _ William _ ?” Nico asked, stuffing his hands in his pyjama pant’s pockets and starting to walk slowly back to their block. 

“Usually I get a bit more sleep than I did last night,” he replied. “I’m dead tired.”

Nico laughed. He could relate. It had been a while since he pulled his last allnighter, and he knew that this wouldn’t be his last, but. At least it was his day off today.

The parking lot of their apartment block had indeed been emptied; no firemen in sight, just a quiet building. Will opened the door, holding it open for Nico before heading for the elevator. 

“Which floor are you on, by the way?” he asked, gently hitting the button for the third floor. 

“The fifth,” Nico replied, leaning against the wall. Now that he had stopped walking, the exhaustion hit him again in waves. 

“Cool,” Will replied. Nico could see him chewing the inside of his cheek. Hesitating. 

“Hey, do you want to-”

The door dinged open. The third floor. 

“Ah-” Will paused, sliding his foot forward until it blocked the sliding doors. He glanced back at Nico. “This is me.”

Nico nodded, caught off guard.  _ What were you going to say what were you going to  _ say _ \-  _

“I’ll see you round?” He said, tamping down on the disappointment in his gut. 

“Yeah,” Will said, smiling softly at him and stepping out into the hall. “See you round.” 

Will turned once more to look back at him, his face pinched in… was that disappointment? 

Before he could ponder it, the elevator doors slid shut in Nico’s face. 

He blinked.  _ Well.  _

He yawned as he stepped out onto the fifth floor landing, trudging down the hall to his front door. Finally, he could just fucking- 

“Wait!”

He blinked, dropping his keys. 

_ “Will?” _

Will jogged up to him, slowing to a halt and dropping forward to lean his hands on his knees, panting. Nico blinked down at him. 

“What the fuck, Will?”

“I- fuck, hang on-” he said, coughing. 

“Did you just fucking run up two flights of stairs?” 

“Yeah,” he said. 

Nico rolled his eyes. “Why, Will? Why did you run up two flights of stairs?”

Will pushed himself to stand straight - or at least, straighter - and look Nico in the eye. 

“I want to see you again. Didn’t wanna miss my chance to ask.”

“We live in the same building,” Nico muttered. He could feel his face getting hot. 

“Yeah, we’ve lived in the same building for a while now and it took me being half naked at 3am for you to talk to me.”

Nico felt a soft, small smile curl across his face. He did have a point. 

“How about we both get some sleep, and then you can text me the details?” 

“I don’t, uh,” Will said, blinking. “I don’t have your number.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Are you always this dumb, or is it the sleep deprivation? Give me your phone.”

Will made a gentle “oh” noise, digging into the pocket of his - Nico’s - Jason’s? - hoodie and pulling out his phone. 

“Am I going to get that sweater back?” Nico mumbled as he typed in his phone number. 

“Well, you can have it now,” Will said, looking down at his chest. It seemed like he had unzipped it while sprinting to catch Nico. 

“And leave you to go back downstairs half naked? I’m not that cruel.”

“Yeah. Can you imagine if Mrs. Johnson saw me?” 

Nico laughed, gently tapping Will’s phone against his chest. 

“She’d be scandalised.”

“Can’t have that,” Will muttered. He took his phone from Nico, gently. “I’ll give it back next time I see you.”

“Yeah,” Nico said, smiling. Will nodded. 

“I’ll, uh- get going, then?” 

Nico smiled, nodding again. Will turned, shooting one last smile over his shoulder as he turned to the stairs. 

He collapsed onto his bed face first, shoes still on. He was so, so fucking ready to sleep. 

His phone dinged once, then twice, then again. 

“I swear to fucking god,” he muttered, reaching out to grab it and turn it off. 

His eye caught on the messages as they continued coming before he could, and he flushed. 

from: Unknown (6:03 AM)  
 _hey  
_ from: Unknown (6:03 AM)  
 _this is will  
_ from: Unknown (6:03 AM)  
 _obvs  
_ from: Unknown (6:03 AM)  
 _i just wanted you to know that when i asked to see you again it was in a gay way  
_ from: Unknown (6:03 AM)  
 _in case that wasnt clear  
_ from: Unknown (6:03 AM)  
 _yknow  
_ from: Unknown (6:03 AM)  
 _a date_

from: Nico (6:04 AM)  
_ Yeah i got that _

from: Will (6:04 AM)  
_ oh   
_ from: Will (6:04 AM)  
_ okay cool  
_ from: Will (6:04 AM)  
_ sleep well nico  
_ from: Will (6:04 AM)  
__ :) 

Nico smiled, turning the volume firmly off - he swore that he’d break the next thing that tried to  _ ring  _ at him - and curled up beneath his blanket, finally falling into a long, dreamless sleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a cute lil thing I wanted to write up, and here it is! I hope you enjoyed it :)


End file.
